Jus’ Bekoz: Alex Church gets grad spot at UAB

“A graduate assistant basketball coaching position for two years, Alex.” And, yes, absolutely, there were times when Alex Church felt like that plan was in Jeopardy. A May graduate from Marshall with a degree in physical education and health, the Thundering Herd’s lead team manager last season, Church planned the next step in his personal […]

“A graduate assistant basketball coaching position for two years, Alex.”

And, yes, absolutely, there were times when Alex Church felt like that plan was in Jeopardy.

A May graduate from Marshall with a degree in physical education and health, the Thundering Herd’s lead team manager last season, Church planned the next step in his personal progression to become a Division I basketball coach some day.

“At 22, I’m sweating bullets,” he said of his letter-writing and phone-calling mission, trying “to get a foot in the door.”

Although possibilities existed — at least, he hoped so — there was nothing concrete for the son of Hedgesville basketball coach Kelly Church.

It was unnerving for the coach-in-waiting.

Soon enough, it became exhilarating.

“Really out of nowhere,” Alex Church received a text from D.J. Blac, an assistant at Alabama-Birmingham telling the prospective graduate assistant to send a resume to the head coach and they would talk.

Church wound up receiving an offer from Robert Ehsan, who began his coaching career as a grad assistant at Maryland under Gary Williams.

Church, who will study communications in his master’s program, got hired.

“It was crazy,” Church said. “It took all of five days.”

Even crazier in some sense, Church is going from one Conference USA school to another league member, changing allegiances.

He talked to the players, managers and coaches at Marshall to tell them of the development.

“We’re like brothers; we’re super close,” Church said. “Everybody’s really supportive, but it will be weird going back to Huntington in January. It will be different.”

What he’s finding different now is the weather, and he figures it’ll be considerably nicer temperature-wise in Alabama in the winter than it was in Huntington.

As Marshall’s manager, he visited Birmingham and over time, with return visits from the Blazers at Marshall, Church made some kind of connection with the coaches. They’d have to communicate, after all.

“I knew their names,” Church said, “but that was really about it.”

The ball bounced the right way for him, though.

Originally, Church took on a managerial role at Marshall to start his quest in coaching.

He learned everything he could, which is the same approach he plans to take at his new school familiarly known as UAB.

“My top priority is I want to learn as much as I can and expand my role,” Church said.

While college basketball coaches are often former players, there are those who have taken the route of being a manager first. It worked for a couple of teammates at Martinsburg, Mark Richmond and Kyle Triggs, who both turned managerial jobs at West Virginia University into coaching jobs.

It’s a place where some new head coaches neglect such candidates in choosing their staffs.

“You’re spot on,” Church said. “Obviously, you have people in college who want to be part of a team, get gear and help out. There’s nothing wrong with that. But there’s that under-the-radar thing. If you can get a college job if you’re not going to be a former player or walk-on player, it can be hard. If you’re going to be an assistant, it’s easier to be a former player.

“You’re starting out at the bottom of the totem pole. You start out with a towel over your shoulder, wiping up sweat off the floor.”

True sweat equity.

Church phoned Richmond, the assistant coach at Youngstown State, regularly, and had been regularly writing Richmond, the university, in quest of an opportunity. He wrote to a lot of schools, too, like three letters a day to coaches all over.

It was the same approach he’s taken every summer, working this camp and that camp and this camp again at places like Duke and Virginia Tech. He worked other camps, too.

It was about getting his name out there, getting recognized.

His father also has some connections, and Kelly offered his help.

“I think he’s a very good people person to say the least,” Alex Church said. “He was big at building relationships. Once, he told, ‘It’s what you can do, but 50 percent of it is who you know.’

“You think college basketball coaching is a big, big world, but it’s an extremely small community. If you know one person, how many more people does that one know?”

He’s thankful to his father, whom Alex Church calls his “inspiration.”

It’s also interesting that his twin brother Adam is working in a shipyard in Mississippi four hours away. That’s closer than the pair were when both were in college.

If fact, Alex Church substituted Hedgesville graduate C.J. Burks as his brother at Marshall.

“C.J.’s one of my best friends,” Church said. “When he went on his official visit, I went with him. … If I didn’t have a twin — but Adam looks like me — he’d be it.

“His talent level is ridiculous. I’ve never seen anybody work harder than he does. … He’s really become an elite shooter in the last year. He has an NBA body and is an NBA-type guard.”

Burks and Jon Elmore both ranked in the top 25 in NCAA scoring and helped lead Marshall to an NCAA appearance.

The Thundering Herd defeated Wichita State in Marshall’s first game but lost to West Virginia in the second.

“The way they play defense, we hadn’t seen a team like that all year,” Church said.

Still, Church wouldn’t give up the experienced for anything.

“‘Special’ is the best word to describe it,” said Church, who really was at a loss of words in talking about it.

“It will be one of the coolest experiences of my life.”

Now the wheels turn to something different, something that he thinks will be even cooler: he’s a Division I graduate assistant basketball coach.

He’s integrating himself in the UAB program while trying to navigate life in a new town. The Blazers will play in the Advocare Classic at the start of the season, facing Florida State, an NCAA tournament team last spring, in the opening round. Defending national champion Villanova also is in the field, as is Oklahoma State, which reached the NCAA Tournament. Others include Memphis, Canisius, Charleston and LSU.

Yet, he can’t keep his mind off Marshall — from a different perspective.

“I have to figure out how to stop C.J. Burks,” Church said. “I have no answer.”